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Gels, Gobos & Lenses

When it comes to putting on a performance, from DJ-ing a club to managing a stage, visuals are just as important as sound to the overall experience. Although we use a ton of different lights, from floods and wash lights to advanced pinpoint effects, the classic PAR can is still at the heart of any lighting rack. Along with those PAR cans come the gels, gobos and lenses to color them. The effect of lighting on tone and mood is enormous. A rainbow of bright colors can create energy and excitement in a space, for example. Warm reds and purples add romance when you DJ a dance or reception, while cool blue hues make the perfect setup for somber evening or winter scenes in a musical or opera. That's the ultimate goal of gels and lenses: to evoke emotions in the audience through lighting. Lenses for your PAR 36 pinspots come in RGB or CMYK packs, allowing you to use either of the two main color mixing techniques with your lighting.

For larger traditional cans, each set of gels has its own palette. Make sure to pick out the right sizes: PAR 46 takes 7", PAR 56 takes 8" and PAR 64 takes 9" gels. For general purpose use, American DJ makes some universal spot and flood lenses. They also make colored domes for the Snap Shot II strobe, so if you've got one, you can use those to color-change the strobe as well. On top of all those lenses and gels for incandescent cans, you'll also find shaping filters here for your LED lighting. These come in sheets than can be cut to fit the light, and they work to fit, smooth, shape or widen the spread of your LED panels, PARs, bricks and strips. Choose between 10, 20 and 30 degrees to create different effects, or even the 1-degree filter that turns an LED light into a linear wall wash light. New lighting techs and veterans alike will get a lot of use out of gels, gobos and lenses. Casting the right colors in the right places, or using a gobo to turn an ordinary can into a pattern spot projector, will give your lighting effects the impact they need to put on a great show.